There is an ever-ticking holiday clock looming over my shoulder. I really have to start earlier with Christmas planning and gifts in the Humble Home. Along with the regular holiday craziness and traveling, I do one huge show, take new work to the gallery and squeeze out as many online sales as I can before I slow down and enjoy the season.So what is on my mind today? Advent calendars! I loved advent calendars when I was a kid. Artwork of any kind has always been magical to me. So I enjoyed the combination of art and one day closer to the big 2-5 each December. My favorite calendars were those picked up in our local Hallmark store. Watercolors of wintery scenes; a forest with woodland creatures decorating a tree or a snow-covered hill with children enjoying sledding, ice skating and other holiday merriment.
On my to-do list is to create an advent calendar in my illustration style. This will be my in-between the commercials project this week. Yes, I do watch TV. At least one good show a night! (Terminator and Life on Mars are my favorites until Lost returns!)
Pictured above is a paper advent calendar I made one year for the girls. On the back of each one I had a holiday activity for us to do for the day. Things like drink hot chocolate, watch a Christmas movie, make paper snowflakes, send Christmas cards, bake cookies, wrap gifts, etc. Just fun family things to slow down and enjoy the season.
Want some ideas for different interactive advent calenders? Here is a crafty Flickr group with lots of creative ideas. I hope you have had an enjoyable weekend and found some time to create!
2 comments:
What neat ideas! I am off to check out the flickr group.
I used to do something very similar with my girls. I cut ginger boys and girls out of brown paper bags; the kids decorated them, and I wrote a fun treat or activity on the back to get us through the month of December -- like the first time we could watch the Snowman video, having hot chocolate together, reading a new Christmas picture book ... I had an old house at the time with a pantry, so we stuck the ginger "kids" on one of the cupboard doors with double-sided tape.
Post a Comment